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Brandon Majewki's father, Derek, and stepmom Lisa Tessier, in their Alcona home, hold a grad photo of Brandon. They are devastated after hearing a woman is suing both of their dead sons because she is suffering from the trauma of killing Brandon on Innisfil Beach Road in October 2012.
Tracy McLaughlin Photo

Still in the throes of agony after an SUV struck and killed their bike-riding son, the parents of young Brandon Majewski are now reeling after they learned the driver is suing their dead child.

“I feel like someone kicked me in the stomach — I’m over the edge,” the dead boy’s father Derek Majewski said.

Brandon, a spunky and handsome 17-year-old bike enthusiast, was out with two buddies at around 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 28, 2012, when they hopped on their bicycles to go for hotdogs.

Not long after, an SUV crashed into the boys on Innisfil Beach Road, killing Brandon and badly injuring his friend Richard McLean, 16, who suffered a broken pelvis and other serious injuries. His other pal Jake Roberts, 16, received only scratches.

Now the driver of the SUV - a former Innisfil resident - Sharlene Simon, 42, a mother of three, is suing the dead boy for the emotional trauma she says the crash has caused her. She’s also suing the two other boys, as well as the dead boy’s parents, and even his brother, who has since died. She’s also suing the County of Simcoe for failing to maintain the road.

Even the family’s lawyer is in shock.

“In all of my years as a lawyer, I have never seen anyone ever sue a child that they killed,” Brian Cameron said. “It’s beyond the pale.”

Brandon’s mother, Venetta Mlynczyk, said she’s devastated.

“She killed my child and now she wants to profit from it? She says she’s in pain? Tell her to look inside my head and she will see pain, she will see panic, she will see nightmares.”

Simon’s statement of claim says the boys were negligent.

“They did not apply their brakes properly,” the claim states. “They were incompetent bicyclists.”

Brandon’s father shakes his head.

“They’re kids!” he said. “And they have a right to make mistakes...it was a wet, dark road — what about slowing down?”

He insists the reflectors on the bikes would have been visible.

A police report says Simon was driving an estimated 90 km/h in an 80-km/h zone.

The report also states: “no breathalyzer was performed” — a point Cameron intends to delve deeper into, he says.

Simon’s husband, a York Regional Police officer, was driving behind his wife that drizzly night, but little is mentioned about him as a witness in the police report. He pulled over when Brandon was struck, and shortly after both were allowed to go home. It was another witness who pulled over to tend to Brandon and called 911.

Six months after the funeral, Derek Majewski found his son Devon dead after popping pills and drinking. The family is convinced the 23-year-old didn’t try to kill himself, but was just trying to stifle his grief.

"This has ripped our family apart," Majewski said. “And now this woman has the gall to try to profit from our dead child she killed? Profit from another boy who was almost crippled?”

Cameron has launched a routine lawsuit against the driver, mainly for medical and funeral costs on behalf of the boys and their families. He alleges Simon was speeding and may have been intoxicated and talking on her cellphone.